If the liberal mass media is willing to believe what Attorney General Eric Holder says, this nation is in even more trouble than just having the government persecute conservatives, Christians, and pro-Second Amendment, and pro-Israeli groups.
Just yesterday, the embattled attorney general was interviewed in a press conference-type setting "off-the-record." Most likely, he chose to do this because is too embarrassed with how ignorant he really is. The following article from The Blaze discusses the terms of this interview in greater detail:
(Attorney General Eric Holder gestures as he testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, May 15, 2013, before the House Judiciary Committee as it focuses on oversight of the Justice Department. Holder told the committee that a serious national security leak required the secret gathering of telephone records at The Associated Press as he stood by an investigation in which he insisted he had no involvement. Credit: AP)
GOVERNMENT
ERIC HOLDER TELLS PRESS IN OFF-THE-RECORD MEETING: WE WON’T SPY ON YOU ANYMORE
May. 30, 2013 11:42pm
WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) — In a meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder, executives from several news organizations said the attorney general pledged to change the way the Justice Department conducts investigations that involve reporters.
Government officials said they would work to change guidelines on issuing subpoenas in criminal investigations involving reporters and ensure searches that have raised concerns recently about freedom of the press are not repeated, the editors said.
The news executives made the comments Thursday after meeting with Holder and some of his aides.
The discussion took place following an outcry from news organizations over the Justice Department’s secret gathering of some Associated Press reporters’ phone records and some emails of a Fox News journalist.
Last week, President Barack Obama ordered a review of the Justice Department guidelines.
One of the news media participants, Marty Baron, executive editor of The Washington Post, said the news executives told the department officials that reporters were concerned about using their email and concerned about using their office telephones.
“It was a constructive meeting,” said Baron. “They expressed their commitment to the president’s statement that reporters would not be at legal risk for doing their jobs.”
Jerry Seib, Washington bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, said that in addition to the commitment to change the guidelines, there also was a renewed commitment to support a federal shield law for journalists. Such laws in force in many states protect journalists from having to reveal confidential sources.
“We diplomatically raised our concerns – don’t know what’s going to happen if anything,” said Jim Warren, Washington bureau chief of The New York Daily News. “Who knows what’s going to happen if they practice what they seem to preach and try to change some laws that we feel are very relevant. I think it’s sort of an opening gambit.” Warren said “there were some specifics talked about, more of a legal and statutory nature,” but he did not elaborate.
Other news media participants were Jane Mayer, a staff writer for The New Yorker; and John Harris, editor in chief of Politico.
The Associated Press didn’t attend the meeting because it objected to the meeting being off the record. The New York Times said it wouldn’t attend because of the department’s off-the-record ground rules.
Asked why the news executives decided to participate, Baron said people in the press frequently have off-the-record discussions.
“We feel very strongly about the issues here,” said Baron. “This was an opportunity for us to share our views with people at the highest level of the Justice Department.”
Besides Holder, Deputy Attorney General James Cole and seven other Justice Department officials also participated.
Featured image via AP
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Sadly, we really do have sheep for editors and reporters within the media. This is reminiscent of the Munich Agreement in 1938 between British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, where the British head of government implemented the nation's policy of appeasement toward German dictator Adolf Hitler. This did little more than buy the British government time to build up its armed forces; unfortunately, it did the same for the German military. We all know what occurred as a result of this terrible mistake by Prime Minister Chamberlain: the official beginning of the Second World War commenced as a result of the German war machine invading Poland, which was against the Munich Agreement.
This is a game of pitch and catch that we are seeing between the Justice Department, who is the strong-arm of the law for the Obama administration, and the media, who adores the president despite his administration's acts of persecution. Holder is promising to "call off the dogs" if you will in order to avoid a public backlash by both the media and the American people. The Democrats, in particular the president, are so used to traditionally being the party of politicians that can do no wrong according to members of the Left within the media and Hollywood actors, actresses, producers, and directors that they are in a very unfamiliar and uncomfortable position. They are being held accountable for their actions for the first time since perhaps 1968 when, after the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War, President Lyndon B. Johnson faced a grave public backlash against his decisions to further escalate the war, most notably when the great, though liberal, CBS News anchor Walter Kronkite, when the man named "the most trusted man in America" said:
"We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds. They may be right, that Hanoi's winter-spring offensive has been forced by the Communist realization that they could not win the longer war of attrition, and that the Communists hope that any success in the offensive will improve their position for eventual negotiations. It would improve their position, and it would also require our realization, that we should have had all along, that any negotiations must be that – negotiations, not the dictation of peace terms. For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. This summer's almost certain standoff will either end in real give-and-take negotiations or terrible escalation; and for every means we have to escalate, the enemy can match us, and that applies to invasion of the North, the use of nuclear weapons, or the mere commitment of one hundred, or two hundred, or three hundred thousand more American troops to the battle. And with each escalation, the world comes closer to the brink of cosmic disaster.
"To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy's intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations. But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could." ("Who, What, When, Where, Why: Report from Vietnam by Walter Cronkite,")Sadly, there are few, if any, news people who are, and can be held, to as high of an esteem as Kronkite.
All of this comes on the heels of a possible pending charge of perjury by Holder during his May 15 testimony before Congress (Courtesy of The Blaze):
POLITICSSEE THE LETTER TWO GOP REPS SENT TO ERIC HOLDER REGARDING THE POSSIBILITY HE LIED UNDER OATH
May. 29, 2013 3:15pm
Top Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee have “great concern” over the possibility that Attorney General Eric Holder lied during sworn testimony this month about the Justice Department’s monitoring of reporters.
Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) said in a letter to Holder on Wednesday that the attorney general’s testimony that he was unaware of any “potential prosecution of the press” conflicted with subsequent media reports that the Justice Department had obtained emails and phone records of Fox News reporter James Rosen.
“The media reports and statements issued by the Department regarding the search warrants for Mr. Rosen’s emails appear to be at odds with your sworn testimony before the Committee,” the letter states. “We believe – and we hope you will agree – it is imperative that the Committee, the Congress, and the American people be provided a full and accurate account of your involvement in and approval of these search warrants.”
Sensenbrenner letter to Holder:
The May 15 hearing was held after the revelation that the Justice Department had secretly subpoenaed a massive haul of Associated Press phone records, but before the investigation involving Rosen came to light. The letter comes one day after the committee confirmed it is investigating whether Holder misled Congress during his testimony.
The Justice Department did not immediately comment on the letter, but Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), who had been questioning Holder when he made the remarks in question, said Holder’s answer was specific to using the Espionage Act to prosecute any members of the media.
“The attorney general’s statement that no journalists have been prosecuted under the Espionage Act during his tenure is accurate,” Johnson told The Hill.
The White House on Wednesday defended Holder from accusations that he lied under oath, with press secretary Jay Carney telling reporters it seemed “self-evident” that Holder told the truth.
“Based on the published reports that I have seen, I have seen no conflict between what the attorney general said and published reports,” Carney said.
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Based on Congressman Johnson's and Press Secretary Jay Carney's assertions that this administration is apparently the most transparent of any presidency in U.S. history, I guess they must think the American people are, indeed, sheep.
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